Jose Aznar – A Man Of Principle

Israel need not pay much attention to Europe, which is using its Middle East policy to separate itself from the US, has a tendency toward appeasement and is largely pro-Palestinian, former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar told The Jerusalem Post Monday.

“Europe likes appeasement very much; this is one of the most important differences between us and the States,” Aznar said in an interview on the Bar-Ilan University campus. “Europeans don’t like any problems. They prefer appeasement.”

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Aznar said Europe had no chance of independently impacting on the situation in the Middle East and would be wise to work closely with the US.
“Do we Europeans have the capacity to change the situation and influence this area? The answer is no,” he said.

Aznar said that European policy was “not favorable to Israel,” and that different political leaders in Europe used the Middle East question as a way to establish a different identity from the US.

“In Europe, Israel is not very popular, not only this government, all governments,” he said. “Most Europeans support the Palestinian cause. Europeans sincerely wish for a peace agreement and support the peace process, but the reality is that the peace process is closed. At this moment I think that Europe should work closely with the States, because that is the only opportunity to change the region.”

Asked if Israel should, as a result, pay attention to the US, but not necessarily to Europe, Aznar succinctly replied: “Certainly.” He said that the French and Dutch rejection of the EU constitution last week provided the EU a good opportunity to reform its polices and move away from the isolationist, anti-Americanism that he said defined much of its foreign policy.